


What Abigail Sees

by AVegetarianCannibal



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Abigail drinks mushroom tea and sees the truth, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drug Use, Gen, Hallucinations, Hannigram is implied, M/M, Season 1, future hannigram
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 08:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14280681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVegetarianCannibal/pseuds/AVegetarianCannibal
Summary: A cup of mushroom tea opens Abigail's eyes to more than a few hallucinations.





	What Abigail Sees

**Author's Note:**

> Originally in “Oeuf,” Hannibal’s dialogue with Alana included a confession that the third place setting at the breakfast-for-dinner was meant for Will, but that Will didn't return Hannibal's calls. This was cut from the episode.

Abigail feels warm and light, like she’s floating in the air with the sun on her back. The forest is far beneath her as she begins to drift downward.

When she reaches up to touch her hair, it feels like long pine needles. The soft, new ones, though, and not the spiky ones that prickle like needles. She holds out her arm but it blends in with the trees around her. Maybe she’s become the forest.

She’s almost positive she’s having a dream, but it doesn’t feel like any of the dreams she’s been having lately. This feels strange but familiar all at once. Safer.

She hears a woman’s angry voice and drifts closer to it.

“Rude, Hannibal! _Shockingly_ rude!”

It sounds like Dr. Bloom. What's she doing in the forest?

The smell of breakfast reminds Abigail that she’s in Hannibal’s house. For a moment, it shimmers into view.

Hannibal is apologizing to Dr. Bloom in the next room. Dr. Bloom is mad because girls aren’t supposed to live in the forest. They’re supposed to live in hospitals, of course.

“She experienced a bit of anxiety so I gave her a sedative,” Hannibal is saying. He lies and says it was half a valium.

Abigail laughs into her hands, which are not her hands but slender hooves like a fawn’s. They’re black and gleaming. Amazing.

Another voice joins the conversation—it’s Will Graham. He’s apologizing for not returning Hannibal’s calls earlier. Sooo many apologies. Dr. Bloom still sounds mad, but she agrees to let Abigail stay for dinner.

“Hello, Mr. Graham,” Abigail says when he walks into the dining room with Hannibal.

He sprouts a small set of antlers from the top of his head, right out from  the curly mess of his hair. His glasses fade into rings of tawny fur around his eyes. Oh, he’s a pretty young buck! The kind her father used to say they shouldn’t ever hunt because they still had growing to do. He looks like he wants to reach out to touch her not-hands, but doesn’t know if he should.

As Will sits down across from her, Hannibal sits beside her. Of course he has antlers, too, and his black eyes glint when he looks at her.

“What is it?” Hannibal asks her. “What do you see?”

She’s staring, but she can’t help it. “I see family,” she tells them. The smell of the damp, loamy earth and the bark of the pine trees is all around them.

* * *

 

She wakes up in a room she’s never seen before. She’s just so relieved it’s not the hospital that she doesn’t even _care_ where she is. Maybe if she keeps her eyes shut, she’ll never have to leave.

As time and sense catch up to her, she remembers Hannibal bringing her here and helping her onto the bed. This is his bedroom, in his house. Soft laughter floats up to her from downstairs.

She follows the sound, quiet as she can, until she finds Hannibal and Will sitting in front of the fireplace. She tucks herself behind the edge of the door so that she can see them, but they can’t see her. They look so soft in the light of the fire. They look like they’re made of fire…

She glances down at her hands and finds no hooves there, but can feel a faint fog of the tea still clinging to the edges of her mind.

Will laughs and takes a sip from a whiskey glass. “I can’t believe you gave her _shrooms_. I feel like I should be worried.”

“But you’re not?” Hannibal asks.

Will gives him a perplexed shrug. “Today we caught a woman who took these kids and trained them to hate their own families. Just... up and took them. Screwed with their heads, filled them with the most… twisted… ideas. I know mushroom tea isn’t _that_.”

Hannibal glances down as if he’s shy. “Alana Bloom might not feel that way,” he says. “In the interests of full disclosure, I told her I gave Abigail a valium.”

Will’s smile turns into a more serious expression. “Then why tell me the truth?”

Hannibal starts to say something, then presses his lips together. He regards Will for what seems like a long time. The way he looks at Will… there’s a terrible fondness there that Abigail has never seen before but recognizes instantly as something intensely important.

“Dr. Lecter?” Will looks worried.

Abigail’s heartbeat thuds in her ears. There’s so much more truth Hannibal could tell him.

Hannibal gives Will a smile Abigail can’t quite read. “I suppose I thought you might understand. That’s all.”

Will picks up his drink again and takes a sip. “I understand you want to help her. You understand I want the same. We’re in it together.”

Hannibal raises his glass. “Together, then.”

The relief washes over Abigail like a wave of laughter. It’s only when they both look up at the same time that she realizes she’s laughed out loud.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” she says. “I just didn’t want to interrupt.”

“It’s just as well,” Hannibal sighs, getting up from his chair. “It’s time to get you back now— _past_ time.”

“Do I have to go?” Abigail asks, just managing to keep the whine out of her voice.

“Maybe we can all get together again,” Will says.

He looks so hopeful. "Yeah, maybe,“ she agrees.

Hannibal steps around her, giving her arms a light squeeze. "If you’ll both excuse me for a moment.”

While he goes off to do whatever he needs to do before they leave, Abigail takes up his seat beside Will.

“You know, maybe it’s just the tea talking,” she says, “but I see things really clearly right now.”

He raises his brows at her. “Such as?”

She thinks of all the ways she could put it—that Hannibal looks at Will one way when he thinks Will can see him, and another way when he thinks Will _can’t_ see him—but none of it feels quite like it’s hers to tell. It feels like a secret. Not a very well-hidden one, but still.

“Just… notice him,” she finally decides to say.

Will frowns and looks like he wants to ask her what she means, but Hannibal sweeps back into the room with car keys in hand.

“I’m sorry to hurry you off,” he says to Will.

“No, no, I need to get back,” Will says. He turns to Abigail. “Dr. Lecter tells me it was your idea to invite me, so thank you. I was really glad to spend the time with you. With you both.”

Abigail presses her lips together. A quick glance up at Hannibal tells her she needs to keep that secret for him. “Um, yeah. It was. I’m glad you came. Sorry if I was weird because of the…” She mimes drinking from a cup. 

She goes on ahead to Hannibal’s car to give him a moment to say his goodbyes to Will. They act like they’re not going to see each other again pretty much right away for work or whatever. They’re going to miss each other even if it’s only a day. Even if it’s only half a day. It’d be clear even to someone who hadn’t sipped mind-expanding tea earlier in the evening.

As Hannibal finally gets into the car, Abigail makes plans. She’s going to have to smooth things over with Dr. Bloom, make sure she’s not mad. It will be easier to spend more time with Hannibal and Will that way.

**Author's Note:**

> For @planetstarclaw on tumblr who wanted to see Abigail hanging out with Will and Hannibal


End file.
